November 14, 2010

Gamboling

A marvelous Victorian porch stair rail at an estate sale house filled with architectural salvage.

Yesterday and Today

Himself: Two estate sales. The first was a disaster of dirt, wear, horror on a grand scale, and the second was neat clean, charming. Then a very slow day at the museum, and a loading of our truck of donations for the store. The lady gathering in the donations didn’t need us, she needed a U-Haul…which she will get today she says. G broke the lid latch and managed to fix it on the spot.

Herself: with the quilt blog too: Drove to the estate sales. While he was at the museum, I learned how to reduce my photographs to a real 2x4 inch size and send them in email. I didn’t have all the right boxes checked for all these years. Moved donated clothes, and read after dinner.

My Babylonian Captivity: Chapter November 1 through November 7: Do stop in and read Tugster's experience as a human shield. He writes that, “ i was captured in kuwait (where i was teaching in the kuwaiti air force)….”

There are those moments that wake you to winter.

When you wake on and off all night long shivering, perhaps you realize winters coming. You break out the sweatshirts during the day. It’s cold. You wear heavy denims instead of light cotton pants when the temperatures go from the hundreds F down to the low sixties during the day. The first of the space heaters comes up stairs. A quilt goes on the bed. Your husband finds a queen sized, flannel bottom sheet that matches your old set of sheets in the new size.

Nothing like acres galloping, flannel sheep to awake your thoughts of winter. For it’s all we could find at the time.

At the very end of the Mervyn’s going out of business sale, we did a final walk through. Flannel sheets. We needed a new set as we had worn our old ones paper thin. By this time, there were few choices left. One pattern offered big fluffy sheep jumping over clouds in a piercing turquoise sky, and unfortunately it was the only one that had the sheet combination's we needed to cover our over-sized bodies.

We had a double bed so we needed a double sized fitted sheet for the bottom. We needed pillowcases, and two top sheets…one of which had to be a king the other a twin, were needed also. Never will we be without lots of sheet at the top, bottom, or sides if I sew the two sheets together.

At a Carol Bishop estate sale months ago, we bought a new bed. On getting it home, we found we had a Queen sized bed to go with our sets of Double sized sheets. Did our sheep fit? Of course not, and the Geezer immediately set up a worldwide search for a Queen sized bottom sheet filled with gamboling white sheep.

Seventy four dollars on eBay. We thought not. He kept looking. That one set of high priced sheets on eBay got a little lower, then lower still. He ignored them keeping his eye out elsewhere. The seller must have gotten discouraged, and when winter finally arrived those eBay sheep came within our budget. We bought them.

The sheets went on the bed two days ago. The ladder came upstairs today. Why a ladder? The quilt we used the last two nights doesn’t reach the edges of the bed when people are inserted under it. The warm quilt that reaches down each side of the bed has been stored up high above the Geezers closet with the Christmas things. Temperatures reached 42 degrees F (5.5C) in this house last night.

It’s time that all parts of us have now have warmth through the night.

There were boxes of these Edison rolls at this estate sale where everything was shaded the uniform grey of age and dust.

11 comments:

We, too, put the flannel sheets on the bed. (It makes the whole bed one big nest!) The nights here have been in the 30s so we've also turned on the heat. We've had beautiful days, though, with those crystalline blue skies. A beautiful backdrop for the gold and red leaves on the trees. Highs have been about 60.

After about thirty years, I decided that my husband and I were not destined to sleep at the same time in the same place. (Besides, he was always telling me it was too warm...)

So I mad my own nest with my own flannels and quilts. It's just as well that I learned to be alone before it became absolutely necessary. Now that he's in the nursing home, he can do whatever he wants.

Sitting here with 50 degrees daytime and 30's night, and much worse to come, I'm only mildly sympathetic. I added the extra blanket weeks ago. I do understand about the sheets, though. I have no end of trouble with mine. Double bed but those top sheets are very skimpy.

What I love is the thrill and determination of the search! I wish I could find a man who could share the satisfaction of spending time seaching for (and finding!) sheep,clouds and flannel!You are a lucky girl!